About
Tasmania is a great land with many hidden treasures both old and new. Amongst the streets of Hobart are numerous pieces of Urban Art which to both visitors and locals can be an exciting adventure waiting to happen. Urbania is a website developed to be responsive, scalable and supported on mobile devices. Urbania allows the user to easily locate Urban Art within their proximity, keep up with local events such as festivals and allows the user to upload photos of themselves with the art work like a scavenger hunt.
Tourism in Tasmania is a critical industry providing jobs and economic growth. Our iconic festivals such as MONA FOMA brings in much needed tourism for the state. However, are our visitors exploring all of what Hobart has to offer? Instead of being limited to the knowledge of main events, Urbania encourages visitors to explore the streets of Hobart. The Google Map API on Urbania allows a user to find their location and plan a walking route to discover local Urban Art.
By exploring Urban Art, visitors may discover local shops which are hidden away which results in a unique marketing strategy. Also, Urbania may increase the popularity of Urban Art in general, which may encourage the growth of the creative industry. Also, locals may use Urbania to discover parts of Hobart they never realised existed! Perhaps schools will use the website as a free resource for projects!
Data Reused
The data reused in Urbania was provided by the City of Hobart which provides the location, artist, name of art work and a link to the image of each Urban Art piece located in Hobart. The given format of the Urban Art Dataset is underutilized as it is not user friendly. Urbania improves usability by mapping the locations of the art on a Google Map with each pin having an image and the name of the art work. Thus, representing the data in an easy format to understand and appreciate. Also, the State Tourism Satellite Accounts Dataset provided by Tourism Research Australia was used in helping to identify tourism shares in Tasmania which is represented in graphs during the video presentation.
Prize Categories
Urbania will be eligible for the Best Project by a Student Team Award with all team members being current students of the University of Tasmania, Best Use of Tasmania Local Council Data Award by using the Urban Art Dataset provided by the City of Hobart, Design Excellent Award for the professional design of the website, Most Commercial Potential Award as Urbania supports local shops and events through a unique marketing strategy and Most Outstanding Tasmanian Benefit Award due to Urbania's potential to assist in the tourism market.
